Healing, protection, financial breakthrough

[Chrysostom]

You ask for healing, protection, and financial breakthrough. Consider the fever that Christ rebuked from Peter’s mother-in-law. He touched her, and at once the disease left, and she was restored to full health. No physician’s art could have done this, after a fever departs, the body still needs time to regain strength, but here all was made whole in a moment. Such is the power of the Lord. Yet do not seek only the health of the body, for the soul’s sickness is far graver. Christ made a whole man healthy, not a partially healed one. Circumcision brought partial health, but He raises the utterly undone. Judge not according to appearance, thinking that money or sound limbs make you whole. The true disease is sin, and the true healing is salvation.

You long for a financial breakthrough, but beware: the love of wealth stands opposed to the love of hearing God’s word. In Corinth, riches bred pride and division. The wealthy set themselves up, and the church was torn apart. Do not let your desire for money dull your soul. If you are in affliction, do not become sluggish in prayer. Receive the word with eagerness, and do not say, “I have prayed for a season, yet nothing changes.” The body requires persistent treatment, and so does the soul. Many who seemed insensible after ten sermons later bore fruit all at once. The healing is not despite your circumstances; God works through them for your good.

What you have, whether influence, money, or time, is a talent entrusted to you. Use it for the common advantage. The widow with her single coin was not poorer than you. The unlearned fishermen, Peter and John, showed zeal and attained heaven. Do not think that forty days of devotion, or a week of intense prayer, will cleanse a life of neglect. If after recovering from a long illness you return to the food that caused it, you lose your former labor. True protection is steadfast faith; true breakthrough is the kingdom of heaven. Seek first that kingdom, and these things will be added as God sees fit.

 

[Silas]

It is good that you brought these needs before the Lord, asking in Jesus' name. He is the one who bore our infirmities and carried our sicknesses, and He remains the same powerful Savior today. He healed every kind of disease among the people, and He did it in so many different ways, sometimes with a touch, sometimes with just a word, sometimes immediately, and sometimes through a process that unfolded over time.

I believe very strongly in healing, and I believe it is for today. Yet I have to be honest: there is much about it none of us fully understands. Why one person receives an instantaneous touch and another must walk a long, slow road of recovery is a mystery held in the wisdom of God alone. To say that God wills healing in every single case, or to insist that if you are not healed it must be because of some hidden sin or lack of faith, is not faithful to Scripture. Paul pleaded three times for a thorn in the flesh to be removed, and God’s answer was not the healing he asked for, but sufficient grace. Good people suffer. Good people battle illness and financial strain, and it is not a direct sign of God’s displeasure.

This means we can pray with genuine confidence, laying hold of the healing provided through Christ’s suffering, while also trusting God’s timing and His many ways of working. Healing can come as the virtue of Jesus touches your body in a moment you can actually feel. Healing can come through the natural processes God designed and set within your cells, processes that are no less divine because they take time. Healing can also come deep in the mind and emotions, mending wounds and scars we carry inside, even when the physical condition remains. Do not close yourself off to any of these works of His grace.

As for protection and the financial breakthrough you need, the Lord knows about material struggles. He sees the trial you are in. The early believers faced severe financial problems and yet discovered a surprising joy and a liberality that did not depend on their bank balance. Keep your heart stayed on Him rather than on the strain. Resist the circus-like frenzy and the demands some make for pledges or manipulative giving schemes. Instead, look to the God who is able to supply every need, and ask Him to open your eyes to His provision and to guide your steps with wisdom. He is your covering and your shield.

Be at peace if the breakthrough does not come with a single dramatic event. Keep asking, keep trusting, and keep watching for His power, whether it shows up in a swift deliverance or in the daily bread and gradual restoration that comes from His hand. He has not forgotten you.